Clare Muscutt talks with Sarah Curran-Usher MBE about the evolution of retail customer experience

I think it’s really important that I stress that, you know, particularly when we’re talking about profitability… and sometimes, I think there’s this unfair assumption towards female leadership that we’re focused on all the sort of exciting and cosy stuff, the warm staff that kind of creates this loyalty, but actually that therefore we’re not looking at the bottom line. And that’s not the case because actually, particularly if you’ve got a low average selling point, protecting your operational margin and operational profits is even more important because you haven’t got much to play with. But then, it’s about driving that repeat customer through strong loyalty, strong retention. It’s about maybe purchasing less inventory and stock so that you’re actually selling more at actually full price versus having to constantly give out discounts to incentivise people to shop.